Govt must upgrade Princes Highway: Libs

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell has again called on the federal government to accept that the Princes Highway needs an upgrade.

Govt must upgrade Princes Highway: Libs

29 December 2009

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell has again called on the federal government to accept that the Princes Highway needs an upgrade.

In the wake of yet another fatal accident on a notorious stretch of the road south of Ulladulla, Mr O'Farrell has urged the commonwealth to step in but says the state government shouldn't be let off the hook for years of neglect.

"The state government has refused to accept responsibility for this road ... (It) refused for 15 years to put funding into the Princes Highway that it deserves given the growth in the region," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"And that is ultimately playing a Russian Roulette with people's lives."

Mr O'Farrell said the highway, which stretches from Sydney to the Victorian border along the coast and then on to Melbourne, should be made a national road, the same as the Hume Highway from Sydney to Melbourne.

"It's now time for the federal government to stump up and accept that the Princes Highway should also be given an upgrade," he said.

"But that doesn't absolve the state government's failure to put funding into this stretch of road."

Three people, including sisters aged 11 and 13, died on Monday afternoon at East Lynne, about 20km north of Batemans Bay, when their car and a fuel tanker crashed.